Summary
One of the fiveMagic: The Gatheringpreconstructed Commander decks to come from Tarkir: Dragonstorm, the Jeskai Striker deck takes your spell-slinging to new heights with tons of rewards for casting your spells.
If you want to take this blue, red, and white deck out for a spin with your playgroup, you’re going to want to make a few upgrades before sitting down with your friends. We’re going to flesh out the deck based around Shiko and Narset, Unified, the main commander and the one that makes the most out of the flurry keyword. Elsha, Threefold Master makes for a neat token deck, but not the direction that the deck supports the most.
10Karn’s Temporal Sundering
Cut: Tempest Technique
A lot of spells that let you take extra turns are above that $10 threshold that we’re setting for ourselves but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some good ones we can still use. Karn’s Temporal Sundering lets target player take an extra turn and you get to bounce something back to its owner’s hand.
You have to exile the legendary sorcery upon resolution, which is less fun since you can’t bring it back to your hand to keep playing through some other means, but it is copyable by Shiko and Narset, Unified so you can get at least two turns in a row through it.
9Sorcerous Squall
Cut: Mangara, The Diplomat
While it starts at nine mana, Sorcerous Squall can cost as low as just three blue mana with enough cards in your graveyard. Sorcerous Squall has target opponent mill nine cards and lets you cast an instant or sorcery spell from that player’s graveyard for free.
With Shiko Narset, Unified out and if Sorcerous Squall is your second spell in the turn, you get to mill 18 cards and possibly steal two of their best spells. If Sorcerous Squall is your first spell in the turn, then the stolen spell will be copied, potentially giving you a huge advantage over the battlefield.
8Irenicus’s Vile Duplication
Cut: Young Pyromancer
The key part of Shiko and Narset, Unified’s ability is that to copy a spell it has to be one that targets a permanent or player so you want to make sure you’re playing the appropriate spells to get that nice copy effect.
That’s where you get to experiment with some unique spells like Irenicus’s Vile Duplication come in. This sorcery lets you make a token of a target creature you control, with the copy being nonlegendary and gaining flying. Now you’ve got two copies of your commander you may duplicate those triggers, giving you more and more spells.
7Hinata, Dawn-Crowned
Cut: Magma Opus
Magma Opus is a fantastic spell, that gives you four solid effects though it’ll set you back eight mana. In a game of Commander, those effects just aren’t quite enough to close out a game, and that mana cost is so high that it will cost you at least nine mana to be able to copy it.
Thankfully there’s an easier card we can play that will make all your other spells easier to play with Hinata, Dawn-Crowned, arespectable Jeskai Commander in their own right.. Spells that you cast with Hinata out will cost one less generic mana to cast for each target the spell has, while the inverse will be applied to your opponents.
6Stormcatch Mentor
Cut: Elsha, Threefold Master
You’re casting a ton of spells in your game so you’re going to want a discount on those instant and sorcery spells and that’s where Stormcatch Mentor comes in. The Otter Wizard (an adorable kindred typing) reduces the cost of your instant and sorcery spells by one generic mana, letting you cast two spells much easier than before.
There are quite a few creatures that have the same effect, with Stormcatch Mentor only being the cutest of them. Removing the alternate commander, Elsha, Threefold Master is an okay cut to make since we’re out of the token game and Elsha doesn’t do much else past that.
5Taigam, Ojutai Master
Cut: Shiny Impetus
Taigam, Ojutai Master does two very strong things to justify his slot in your deck. First and foremost, Taigam makes it so your instant, sorcery, and by happy accident, your Commander, can’t be countered.
Attacking with Taigam gives your instant and sorcery spells cast from your hand rebound so long as he has attacked this turn. Rebound is a neat mechanic that lets you exile the spell when it resolves and then lets you cast it again at the top of your next upkeep step for free.
Removing Shiny Impetus is fine since it doesn’t really do much and likely won’t generate much Treasure along the way.
4Gitaxian Probe
Cut: Third Path Iconoclast
A very simple card, Gitaxian Probe comes with one very unique ability in that you can cast it by paying two life instead of one blue mana thanks to the Phyrexian mana symbol. This lets you get your two spell threshold for Shiko and Narset’s flurry ability online and you can cast the more powerful spell.
Removing Third Path Iconoclast is an easy cut since we’re leaving the token strategies out of the deck and there are just better things we can be doing with our mana. Don’t forget that looking at an opponent’s hand with Gitaxian Probe is important to make sure no one is holding up a counter spell or similar disruptive spell.
3Swiftfoot Boots
Cut: Rite Of Replication
With decks that rely heavily on their commander, you’re going to want to have some protection for them, which is where Swiftfoot Boots comes in. This little artifactgives your equipped creature hexproofand haste, letting you load up your creature with spells while putting a stop on your opponent’s removal spells.
Rite of Replication is a very silly card, especially if you’re able to kick it, but we already took a look at some better copy spells that let you clone your legendary creatures too, making Rite of Replication a bit redundant and less efficient.
2Press The Enemy
Cut: Dismantling Wave
An amazing spell that has flown under the radar from Tales of Middle-earth, Press the Enemy is a tempo spell that can trigger Shiko and Narset’s ability with one spell. Press the Enemy lets you bounce a spell or a nonland permanent back to its owner’s hand, letting you get around even spells that can’t be countered by just sending it back to their hand.
You also get to cast an instant or sorcery spell with a mana cost equal to or lower than whatever you just put back. Dismantling Wave is an okay card but there are more efficient ways to deal with artifact and enchantment removal in red and white.
1Sunforger
Cut: Ghostly Prison
Alright, since we’re going all in on spells you are going to want a reliable way to tutor them up and Sunforger is exactly the tool you need to grab practically anything you need at any given moment. You can pay two mana and unattach Sunforger from a creature to go get a red or white instant card that costs four mana or less, letting you cast it immediately.
This will help trigger Shiko and Narset, Unified’s flurry ability when you might not have a spell in hand readily available. Ghostly Prison is a very good card for many decks, but since the enchantment angle doesn’t do much for Shiko and Narset, it’s a fine card to cut.
